After Albert Johanneson's sad loss of
confidence and form following a dismal performance in the 1965 FA Cup
final, fleet footed winger Mike O'Grady was the man who took on the
baton of providing the flamboyance for Don
Revie's Leeds United side of the late Sixties.

Revie had to find £30,000 in October 1965 to sign O'Grady from Huddersfield
Town, but United could have originally had him for nothing. They allowed
the Leeds-born wide man to slip through their scouting net and sign
for the Terriers when he left school six years earlier after representing
Leeds Schoolboys. That was a rare lapse for a youth scheme that was
renowned for its success in unearthing future diamonds.

O'Grady was a winger of the traditional school, though at 5ft 10in
he was taller than the stereotypical outside man. He could play on either
flank, and had the happy knack of being able to drift in off the wing
to contribute the odd goal, mostly with powerful drives from the edge
of the area.

Andrew Mourant: "In full flight, Mike O'Grady cut an impressive figure
as a winger ... athletic with excellent balance. The confidence that
comes from being a regular first team player brought out his manifold
talents. O'Grady had a great appetite for taking on defenders, and would
obey instincts to do so even if sometimes it meant losing the ball.
It was not his way to search round for a team mate to pass to, having
run out of nerve or imagination. Mike O'Grady could be as potent a winger
as any when fuelled with such self belief. He would play with the attitude
that no one was good enough to take the ball off him and was sometimes
frustrated by Don Revie's strictures on the need for caution when, in
O'Grady's view, the opposition was there to be taken apart."

It was O'Grady's misfortune to be at his peak when Sir Alf Ramsey was
in charge of the full England side, with his disdain for wide men -
O'Grady won two caps; the first came before Ramsey's time in October
1962, when he scored twice against Northern Ireland, and then he had
to wait six years for a second appearance, when he again scored in a
5-0 thrashing of France at Wembley. It was a shocking waste of talent.

He was once described as a walking set of quiz answers, having scored
both the fastest European Cup goal and Leeds' first in the tournament,
been the only man ever signed by both Bill Shankly and Revie and scored
more goals for England than he won caps with them over a seven season
international career.

Revie, with his predilection for home loving family men, thought of
O'Grady as something of a rebel, also coming to regard him as a dispensable
luxury. Andrew Mourant: "O'Grady considers Revie might have wanted to
get rid of him because he was the only first team regular who was single.
Always intensely interested in the welfare of his players, Revie had
already asked O'Grady why he didn't get married. Revie, O'Grady feels,
thought single players were potentially troublesome, that they were
more liable to go out and get involved in some sort of a scrape. Moreover,
Revie liked conformity and leaned towards family establishments. His
own family life had been dislocated first by the death of his mother
in his boyhood, then by his departure to Leicester when only 16."

It was a matter for the greatest regret that O'Grady never fully realised
his potential. Leeds supporters certainly appreciated his talents and
threatened an uprising when O'Grady quit Elland Road in 1969 following
his most productive season for United when they captured the League
title.

Born the fifth son of an Irishman on 11 October 1942
in East Leeds, Mike O'Grady was a star of Leeds and Yorkshire Schoolboys
in the late 1950s. When the time came, though, he chose to sign professional
forms for Huddersfield Town in October 1959.

"As a kid in east Leeds I can remember kicking a ball around and someone
asking what I wanted to be," says O'Grady. "I said: 'I'm going to play
for Leeds United'. I was four. My dad used to watch them because they
had two good Irish players, Jim McCabe and Davy Cochrane.

"At Corpus Christi School I captained the city boys from midfield.
Other lads were invited to Elland Road for trials but I never was. Then
I got asked to go to Huddersfield and I was chuffed.

"As soon as Leeds found out Town were interested, Sam Bolton, the chairman,
and Raich Carter, the manager, used to park in our road and wait for
me in a big Humber car. Then they started appearing at school. Our headmaster
was connected to a club called Leeds Catholics and Mr Bolton offered
to buy them a new kit if I joined Leeds.

"One day I said: All right, I'll go'. Bolton and Carter came to the
school and the head said: 'Tell them what you told me'. I said: 'I've
changed my mind'."

O'Grady: "Raich Carter was Leeds
United's manager at the time, and he didn't show any interest until
he knew I was going to Huddersfield. Billy Bremner joined Leeds around
the time I went to Huddersfield and I remember being in direct opposition
to him in a couple of Northern Intermediate League games. Billy was
playing on the wing in those days and Huddersfield were playing me at
full-back. I came off best at Fullerton Park, but Billy 'murdered' me
in the return fixture six weeks later!

"Huddersfield played me at left-back for the juniors. I used to drive
the coaches barmy catching the ball on my hip in the penalty area. When
we played Leeds away, I was left-back again and Leeds' right-winger
was a Scottish kid who I learned was called Bremner. I never gave him
a kick, and one of the Leeds' first team, Jack Overfield, told me he'd
never seen Billy so quiet. Shankly was there and declared: 'We've found
the new Ray Wilson'.

"I felt pretty pleased with myself. But a few months later, in the
return fixture at Heckmondwicke, it was the complete opposite. Billy
murdered me. We used to have a drink together before we became team-mates
and later we were near-neighbours."

Town were managed at the time by Bill Shankly, who quit a couple of
months later to found a footballing dynasty at Liverpool. O'Grady still
has the letter, starting 'Dear People', from Shankly to his parents
and recalls: "Bill had been to our house several times. I was the youngest
of six children and he'd charmed us all, mum and dad too. Carter's attitude
was 'You're a Leeds lad, you should come to Leeds'.

"Wolves then got interested and I was invited to meet Stan Cullis at
Molineux. By chance, Shankly was talking to their Yorkshire scout and
asked if he'd seen any decent players. The guy mentioned me. Next thing
I knew he was banging on our door saying I had to go to Huddersfield."

The Terriers' playing strength at the time included outstanding players
like Denis Law, Bill McGarry and Ray Wilson, but the club had been languishing
in the Second Division since 1956. O'Grady made his debut shortly after
signing and after just 16 appearances for the first team he won the
first of three England Under-23 caps.

The tricky winger quickly gained a reputation as one to watch, starring
as Huddersfield finished 1959/60 6th, though they came close to being
relegated the following season. Denis Law was sold to Manchester City
in March 1960 in a British record £55,000 deal, said by some to be arranged
as a way of financing the club's new floodlights. O'Grady scored the
winner in the first game played in front of the Leeds Road lights, a
January 1961 Cup replay against Wolves. It was a rare moment of joy
in a poor season

With two games remaining and Lincoln City already doomed to the drop,
any one of eight clubs could still join them in relegation, Leeds, Bristol
Rovers, Rotherham (all 35 points), Leyton Orient, Stoke (both 34), Brighton,
Huddersfield (both 33) and Portsmouth (31). Huddersfield faced a make
or break trip to Brighton on 22 April, while Portsmouth were at Middlesbrough.
O'Grady put the Terriers ahead just before the break, but Brighton hit
two second half goals to win the game. Things looked bleak, but Portsmouth's
3-0 defeat on Teesside meant Town were all but safe anyway. Their survival
was confirmed the following week when they beat Bristol Rovers 4-0 at
Leeds Road, with O'Grady netting his fourth goal of the season.

In 1962 they enjoyed the comfort of a seventh place finish, despite
slumping as low as 16th in February after a run of just two wins in
13 games. On 3 March, Huddersfield hosted Leeds United as Don Revie
made his final appearance as a player. O'Grady was in the Terriers side
that beat the Whites 2-1 at Leeds Road and was not surprised that it
proved to be Revie's final appearance. "I was only young but it was
clear to me that Don's legs had gone," he says. "He was strolling around
and a little frustrated at not being able to do what he had clearly
done easily earlier in his career."

By September of the following campaign Huddersfield were leading the
table with O'Grady's hat trick in a 3-2 win at Norwich taking them there.
The Times reported thus: "O'Grady ... underlined why many a covetous
eye has been cast in his direction. Clearly he is a talented player
with a flair. Twice he left Ashman stranded on the inside to send home
right-footed goals; and a third goal was almost his right and privilege
when he threaded a needle with a great left-footed shot from an oblique
angle. Indeed, before the end only a great save by Kennon and two other
near misses prevented O'Grady from increasing his tally." That took
the winger's haul for the nascent season to five goals from six matches.

Their impressive opening run of 13 League games without defeat included
the visit at the beginning of September of a Leeds side which included
John Charles, newly returned to these shores
from six years with Juventus. The Welshman had struggled since his return
to Yorkshire, but hit form at Leeds Road. Nevertheless, O'Grady outshone
him; he was "a quicksilver mover" according to the Yorkshire Evening
Post, while the Yorkshire Post pronounced him "on top of his class"
and showing "a high standard of brilliance". The winger set up chance
after chance for the profligate Town forwards and went very close to
scoring himself on a couple of occasions. In the end, Huddersfield took
the lead on the half hour mark when inside-right Len White headed home
a great centre from O'Grady. Charles drove home the equaliser before
half time, the final one of the three goals he scored during his short
return to United before a transfer back to Italy with Roma.

The Terriers lost ground in November and December and the frost bound
winter pitches left them kicking their heels without a game from Christmas
until March, leaving 20 games to play in 10 weeks. The 6 draws and 6
defeats they played out during that spell shattered any hopes of promotion;
they never got into a promotion spot, finishing 6th. On a happier note,
O'Grady returned his best ever haul with ten goals for the season.

The winger's consistent form earned him a first England cap on 20 October
1962. It came against Northern Ireland in Belfast in one of the final
games of Walter Winterbottom's reign as England manager. The side also
included his club colleague Ray Wilson, along with Jimmy Armfield, Bobby
Moore, fellow debutant Brian Labone, Alan Peacock
and Jimmy Greaves as England sought to rebuild after the recent World
Cup finals.

The Times: "In attack one would agree with the chance given to O'Grady
at outside-left. Already he has won an Under-23 cap and why the untested
Hinton of Wolverhampton Wanderers was preferred to him in the first
place (three weeks earlier against France) it was difficult to follow.
O'Grady, of course, may fail in Belfast. Yet it is to be hoped that
he will be encouraged. He has something to offer for the future."

O'Grady scored twice in the closing fifteen minutes as
England won 3-1 to record their first Home International victory since
April 1960. The Times described the winger as "uninspired", though acknowledging
that he "certainly awoke at the last to raise a corner of the curtain
on his latent display ... O'Grady strode through at inside-right to
shoot home, and again within that last quarter hour underlined his new-found
alertness as he stroked Peacock's pass just inside Irvine's far post:
3-1."

"I got my first call-up for England in October 1962, a week after turning
20," O'Grady recalls. "I'd never played above the Second Division, but
Walter Winterbottom picked me against Northern Ireland in Belfast because
Bobby Charlton was injured.

"Jimmy Greaves put me through for one goal, with my right peg, and
Alan Peacock for another, with my left. I should have had a hat-trick
but played it to someone else, who missed, when I could have scored
myself."

Three weeks later, O'Grady got another chance, in the Under-23 team
that played Belgium at Plymouth. He
scored the second in a 6-1 victory by way of a long range drive, with
the Times reporting that he had "displayed speed and guile."

He was due to win his second full cap on 22 November against Wales,
but was injured at the eleventh hour, allowing Bobby Tambling to come
in for his debut in a 4-0 victory. Nevertheless, O'Grady was given another
outing, with a full England side masquerading as a Football League XI
playing the Italian League a week later. The Italians fielded an all
star international line up which included John Charles and Helmut Haller,
but the home men triumphed by three goals to two.

The Football League forward line played splendidly and O'Grady gave
a tremendous display. He created the first two goals, Tottenham's Les
Allen poking home the rebound after O'Grady's shot had struck an upright,
and then the winger playing Jimmy Greaves in to net the second.

O'Grady seemed set for a lengthy run in the side, or at least the squad,
but new manager Alf Ramsey omitted him completely for his first game,
in February against France. He chose instead to restore Bobby Charlton
to the left wing for the first time since the 1962 World Cup finals.
O'Grady was to remain in sad exile for the next few years as Ramey's
wingless wonders became a power in world football.

Back in West Yorkshire, it was widely predicted that Town would build
on the outstanding promise of their previous campaign and challenge
for promotion in 1963/64. Instead they had to stand
by and watch as Leeds United secured
the title while their own form fluctuated wildly for the first half
of the season before stabilising sufficiently to see them finish 12th.

The following year, a poor start cost manager Eddie Boot his job in
early September and home crowds slumped dramatically. Tom Johnston took
over as manager, blooding fresh new talent like the Irishman Jimmy Nicholson.
Johnson presided over a revival of sorts that saw the Terriers climb
to a final 8th place.

Matters continued to improve in 1965/66; Town won their first 3 games,
including a 6-0 thumping of Middlesbrough. They were among the pacesetters
and O'Grady was in "brilliant form" according to Phil Brown in the Yorkshire
Evening Post, providing great service to the two in form strikers Alan
Gilliver and Les Massie; both men scored hat tricks against Boro and
had notched ten goals between them in the first four games. O'Grady
had contributed a couple himself, but by the middle of October was off
to pastures new.

Leeds United, the club that had missed O'Grady as a youngster, came
a-courting, but they were now a very different proposition, having just
failed to win the League and Cup double. At the start of the campaign,
manager Don Revie had tried in vain to sign Blackpool's England international,
Alan Ball, but their need now was urgent. United skipper Bobby
Collins had fractured a thigh during the recent Fairs Cup-tie with
Torino and Leeds badly needed reinforcements.

Revie planned to switch Johnny Giles inside to replace Collins and,
with Albert Johanneson also out injured, was in desperate need of a
wide man; Mike O'Grady fitted the bill perfectly.

Middlesbrough, Spurs, Everton and Manchester City were all reported
to be competing for the winger's signature, but on 13 October a £30,000
fee was agreed and O'Grady made the switch to Elland Road two days after
his 23rd birthday. By the end of the week the transfer listed Don
Weston had made the reverse journey.

O'Grady: "Bill Shankly signed me for Huddersfield but, once he left,
the training went pear-shaped and the club was just treading water so
I wanted to leave... I had played against Revie for Huddersfield at
Leeds a couple of years earlier but never spoken to him, so, the first
I knew he rated me as a player was when there was a knock at the door
one day. It was the Bishop of Leeds' secretary. He was a little Irish
fella, who said, 'Don Revie is very interested in you and he wants me
to pass on my best wishes'. Revie had somehow found out that we were
a Catholic family and this was his way of getting my Dad on side. It
worked as well. After that, we also had a visit from two Leeds City
councillors who said Revie wanted me, as did a reporter friend of his
called Tom Holley who had been a Leeds player. Don had sent him round
as well. It was an illegal approach but it did the trick as I trained
so hard that summer that when I signed for £30,000 early the following
season I was as fit as I had ever been. It was very clever of Revie,
who I only met for the first time after I had signed."

O'Grady was given his debut at outside-left a few days later, against
Northampton, whom United beat 6-1. Giles won the plaudits with a masterly
display, while the Evening Post noted that "O'Grady, although not getting
a lot of the ball, had a likeable and a spirited debut".

He notched his first goal for Leeds the following week, in the 2-1
victory at Stoke City. The Times: "The real feature was the mobility
of this Leeds
team. Full-backs as wingers or inside-forwards, wingers back to clear
in their own penalty area; forwards switching about like mad: it had
Stoke utterly bemused. O'Grady scored the first Leeds goal from the
inside-right position after Irvine had dropped Lorimer's cross from
the left wing. Their second came from one of their few orthodox, or
should it be old-fashioned, moves. Hunter started the move by seizing
a bad pass from Burrows. O'Grady, whose capture from Huddersfield looks
like being of mutual benefit to the player and his new club, carried
it on and a side flick left Peacock with the goal at his mercy."

O'Grady was initially taken aback by the more professional nature of
United's approach: "In training sessions at Huddersfield, if someone
blew the whistle, it might take the players 10 minutes to get into line.
At Leeds, it took 20 seconds. The training was sharp and varied; the
five-a-sides competitive. Everything was so well organised."

The move to Elland Road coincided with a recall to the England Under-23
side for O'Grady, selected to play against France on 3 November. England
won 3-0 and the Times reported: "O'Grady was regularly able to beat
his full back, who, it should be noted, was the only amateur on the
field. O'Grady used both feet well in dribbling and swerving, but his
final passes were often ill directed."

The winger was on top of the world, seemingly heading for silverware
with Leeds and set to figure again in the England reckoning. Surprisingly,
he was once more consigned to the international scrap heap, though having
the compensation of an excellent first season with his ambitious new
club.

O'Grady was virtually ever present for Leeds that campaign, chipping
in with some valuable goals. None was more important than the effort
away to Valencia in the Fairs Cup in February that saw United home on
a 2-1 aggregate; a controversial 1-1 draw in the first leg at Elland
Road had ended with Jack Charlton and two
Spaniards dismissed for violent conduct.

The game in Spain was goalless up to the 75th minute. Then Madeley
set O'Grady free in the penalty area. The Valencia defence appealed
for offside, but there was no whistle and O'Grady fired home. Despite
heated protests from the Spaniards the goal stood and United were through
to the last eight. Phil Brown wrote in the Evening Post that "O'Grady
had a really first class game on the left wing, streaking away in attack
with half a chance and doing a lot of fast and accurate defending. He
took his goal beautifully, beating off a double tackle and shooting
at an angle. He is playing better than he ever did with Huddersfield
Town, and England could well look at him again."

United finished the season runners up in the League and reached the
Fairs Cup semi finals at the first time of asking, though they were
hammered 3-1 by Real Zaragoza in a replay.

O'Grady missed the first two months of the 1966/67
season through injury, finally returning for the League Cup-tie
with Preston on October 12. After the 1-0 win, Eric Stanger wrote in
the Yorkshire Post, "O'Grady's return with his strong running and accurate
centres brought a big improvement on the right wing".

He struggled to find his real form, though Richard Ulyatt wrote in
the Post
after a 3-1 win against Burnley on 7 January, "O'Grady on the right
wing was the best of the Leeds players, running, harrying, shooting
and distributing the ball cleverly and often. He seemed to play more
intelligent football on Saturday than in all the other games I have
seen him play put together."

Just as he was getting his act together, O'Grady suffered a thigh strain
in the FA Cup against Crystal Palace on 28 January (he had opened the
scoring in a 3-0 victory) and was out of action for a couple of weeks.
He returned for the 5-0 thrashing of West Bromwich Albion, but aggravated
his injury and had to go off after just eight minutes.

He was out until 13 May, when Revie recalled him against Sunderland.
O'Grady did enough to retain his place for the first leg of the Fairs
Cup semi final a week later against Kilmarnock. Eric Stanger wrote in
the Yorkshire Post that he was "skimming down the touchline with commendable
zest" and it was from his centre that Rod Belfitt
nodded home the second goal in a 4-2 victory, while he later struck
a shot against the woodwork.

O'Grady was back at the start of the 1967/68
season and featured in both legs of the Fairs Cup final against
Dinamo Zagreb, held over from the previous campaign. Unfortunately,
the injury curse struck again shortly afterwards; O'Grady badly strained
his back and was out of the team until the following March, when he
returned in a League match at Newcastle. He only managed one more game,
in the FA Cup quarter final victory over Sheffield United.

Phil Brown wrote in his report for the Yorkshire Evening Post: "O'Grady,
probing very constructively on both wings, made more attacking progress
than anybody". The winger was finally free of injury and back to his
very best form. He was virtually ever present as United won the League
championship for the first time in the club's history, with O'Grady
scoring eight times in 38 games.

"I had an exercise regime I'd followed since Huddersfield but Les Cocker
told me to stop it. Sure enough, it flared up again in pre-season.

"They tried to say it was all in my mind. Then Johnny Giles and Paul
Madeley developed back problems and the thinking changed. It was left
to me to tell them when I thought it was coming on. When I did that,
I didn't have to train.

"As a result I had a really good season in 1968/69. I missed a couple
of early games but ended up playing 38 out of 42, mostly right-wing.
I even scored the winner against Manchester United, which went down
well as you can imagine. It was the best I ever played, because I was
in a fantastic side and for once I was free from injury.

"We lost only twice, 3-1 at Manchester City early on, when I scored
and 5-1 at Burnley where Steve Kindon ran riot and Dave Thomas had a
superb game. Everything they hit went in. But we had our revenge about
a month later - we beat them 6-1.

"It got to the point where we felt we couldn't get beaten. lf we went
behind, we always felt we could pull something out of the fire. The
spirit was brilliant. That had started a few years earlier with Bobby
Collins, an inspirational player, although if you accidentally kicked
him in training, you knew you'd get one back! John (Giles) and Billy,
and Jack (Charlton), too - they were always driving us on."

He got the opening goal in September's 2-1 victory against Arsenal
at Elland Road that took United to the top of the table. Eric Stanger
in the Yorkshire Post: "O'Grady's goal was grade A. He ran in hard to
meet Cooper's centre perfectly with his head and, thus encouraged, thereafter
performed as well as I have ever seen him, eagerly calling for the ball
down either wing and also racing back to help his defence. It was pleasing
to see a player who has had such ill fortune with injuries really coming
back into his own ... With Lorimer below par O'Grady shouldered a lot
of his work." In the Evening Post, Terry Lofthouse commented that he
had "suddenly found a new lease of life ... Never have I seen the former
Huddersfield Town player give so much, whether it be in attack or back
bolstering the defence. He constantly chased, harassed and tackled with
zeal, as well as displaying his delicate ball control."

When United beat Napoli 2-0 in the Fairs Cup at Elland Road in November,
Phil Brown described O'Grady as "currently one of the most dangerous
wingers in the country". He had painful memories of the second leg in
Naples, as Johnny Giles recalled later: "One of Naples' players (Omar
Sivori) butted Mike O'Grady in the face with
the ball yards away. The Italian then fell to the ground with both hands
over his face and writhing in mock agony. He should have been on the
stage with an act like that! He was smiling as he received 'treatment'
from the Naples trainer, but the referee was completely taken in by
the ruse, and issued a stern lecture to O'Grady!"

O'Grady: "What happened in those early European games had a big
impact on how Revie wanted us to play. He knew we had to look after
ourselves. Some of the things that went on in European games were beyond
belief. Someone spat in my face and I also had one opponent who tried
to poke me in the eye. There was another game against Napoli when, after
passing the ball, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Naively, I turned round
and was head-butted in the face. Straight away, he threw himself to
the floor and the referee booked me - even though I had blood dripping
down my face. Afterwards, Don called us all together in the dressing
room and said, 'This is what we are up against, lads'."

O'Grady maintains that Don Revie was a great manager who was ahead
of his time in his treatment of players and the way he built Leeds United
into a European power, but he believed Revie would have been more successful
had he not been so cautious and superstitious. "Don was too concerned
what our opponents might do rather than what we could do to them," O'Grady
argues. "In my second game we were 2-0 up at Stoke. With 20 minutes
left, I thought we'd start knocking it about. Instead he pulled me back
behind the full-back. It invited them on to us. Stoke got one back and
we ended hanging on for dear life.

"I felt it cost us trophies. At home to Dinamo Zagreb in the Inter-Cities
Fairs Cup final in 1967, we were 2-0 down from the first leg in Yugoslavia.
Yet he played Paul Reaney, a great full-back but not an attacker, on
the right wing.

"He was very superstitious, too. When I first came I put a pair of
boots on a table and he came flying across saying: 'Never put boots
on a table!' I turned up in a green tie one day and he made me take
it off. Green was 'unlucky' in the dressing-room.

"But he had some excellent qualities, and not just constructing a brilliant
side at a club that had hardly done anything. The four years I was at
Leeds was the best I was ever treated. I read a book by the son of the
old Nottingham Forest winger Stewart Imlach which showed how players
were regarded almost as slaves in the 1950s. Revie played then and was
determined his players would be happy. He believed they would perform
better if they were.

"Don liked people to have a stable home life. He wanted us all married
off so we'd be at home at night watching TV, not out on the town. He
used to get on to me because I was a single lad. But I was at home anyway
- I lived with my mum and dad!"

In December 1968, Eric Stanger commented in the Yorkshire Post after
the defeat of Sheffield Wednesday, "Leeds had not a weak spot. They
dovetailed from back to front as a modern side has to do, each man capable
of taking on the other's job when necessary. In that respect no one
is getting better at it these days than O'Grady who seems to do as much
damage from midfield as out on the wing."

In January O'Grady hit a blistering winner against Manchester United.
Phil Brown: "O'Grady suddenly put Leeds ahead again with a wonder right-foot
shot from the left wing that beat Stepney completely as it whizzed away
from him. O'Grady and Giles had combined up the left and Giles lobbed
the ball over Dunne for O'Grady to swirl in at speed. That goal should
have been seen by Sir Alf Ramsey."

Those performances were typical of O'Grady's season ... he was in the
best form of his life and earned a recall for England for the 12 March
Wembley friendly against France, six and a half years after his only
previous cap. Club colleagues Terry Cooper and Jack Charlton were also
in the eleven, with Paul Reaney and Norman Hunter in the squad. O'Grady
sealed his selection with two goals in the weekend's defeat of Stoke
City.

O'Grady set England on the way to a 5-0 victory when he opened the
scoring with a 14-yard volley after 32 minutes. Again he looked ready
to stake a claim for a World Cup place, but once more Ramsey discarded
him.

O'Grady: "We won 5-0. I hit the bar, scored a cracking volley and was
inches from sliding another one in. So I might have scored three again!

"Back at Leeds, Don said Ramsey was pleased and I'd be on the summer
tour to South America, but I wasn't. I was told I'd upset Alf. I'd wanted
to come home after the match but we had to stay overnight in London.
I got whisked off to a party by Jack Charlton and (journalist) Peter
Lorenzo. I was last to get back in which went down badly! Funnily enough
I think I was too introverted for Alf. He liked loud characters. I used
to sit back and stay quiet.

"When I was with Wolves, Bill McGarry said: `You were terrific that
night. Why weren't you picked again? He asked Alf and told me he said
`He only tries when you're in front'. Which was funny since I'd scored
the first goal!"

Phil Brown wrote in the Evening
Post on 24 April: "England team manager Sir Alf Ramsey has dropped Leeds
United winger Mike O'Grady. This was today's big shock when the national
squad to take part in the Home International tournament in May and the
party for the Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil tour in June were named. O'Grady
made a fine impression in England's last match against France at Wembley
a few weeks ago, and has been on form since. I can only think that Sir
Alf is returning to the wingless teams with which England won the 1966
World Cup, for only Lee (Manchester City) of the forwards he announced
today has wing experience in depth and he has often been playing inside."

It might have been a fit of pique from Ramsey at Don Revie's habitual
custom of withdrawing 'injured' players from representative parties
at the eleventh hour, but if so it did not impact on the international
chances of O'Grady's club colleagues. Whatever Ramsey's reasoning, O'Grady's
exclusion was a devastating set back but it failed to dampen his enthusiasm
as he played the best football of his career with Leeds striding to
a first championship.

Leeds' penultimate game took them to Liverpool, the only club that
could catch them. O'Grady: "Bill Shankly was there when we arrived,
waiting in the corridor as he always did, growling: 'You may as well
go home. You'll get nothing here'."

His team did their utmost to ensure Shanks' promise was fulfilled,
only for Leeds to cling defiantly to the 0-0 scoreline that finally
guaranteed first place. The Anfield crowd sportingly chanted "Champions"
as Bremner led his players towards The Kop, though the acclaim was not
universal. "We never got the credit we deserved from the London press,"
says O'Grady. "Yes, we could be hard and ruthless, but they stereotyped
us as dirty and negative and were slow to acknowledge how good we were."

It was from a typical O'Grady cross that Johnny Giles scored the winner
against Nottingham Forest in the final match of the season , which allowed
United to set a record points total of 67. The game was goalless with
just seven minutes remaining on a frustrating evening when the winger
made space and drove a centre to the heart of the area. Giles had a
lot still to do, but it was O'Grady's instinct and application that
carved out the opportunity. It capped a great campaign for him and he
said later, "It was the best season I had at Leeds because I kept clear
of injury, which was one of my downfalls, I used to get injured too
often. When we set off that year, I thought we were going to do really
well... It was surreal when we were presented with the trophy. I couldn't
get my head round the fact that this was the club I watched as a small
boy."

After such a wonderful campaign, O'Grady looked
forward eagerly to the opportunity to play in the European Cup.

Phil Shaw in Backpass magazine: "It was the summer of '69
and Mike O'Grady had the world at his feet. At least he would have done
but for a large, painful swelling under one of them... during the close
season, as he looked forward to parading his two-footed trickery, searing
pace and scoring ability in the European Cup, his left foot turned septic.
That carbuncle, allied to his own misjudgement and the vagaries of Don
Revie and Sir Alf Ramsey, would send his career into decline."

O'Grady managed to recover from the problem but, after playing in the
first two League games of the 1969/70
season, he was dropped to accommodate the new striking partnership
of Mick Jones and Allan Clarke; the latter had arrived in the close
season for a British record transfer fee.

The foot pain meant he played one pre-season match. "The Friday before
our opening game, against Tottenham, I was amazed to see my name on
the team-sheet. I sat there thinking: 'You've got to go and tell the
manager you're not ready to play'.

"Then I thought: 'Well he's picked me so I'll play'. I wasn't at my
best but we won 3-1. I did better in midweek against Arsenal, but Don
pulled me aside and said: 'I don't think you're fit'. I could've told
him that!

"With hindsight, he'd spent £165,000 on Allan Clarke. I suspect he
wanted to recoup some of that. I played in the reserves but got back
in the team and scored in the first minute of our first European Cup
game, when we beat Lyn Oslo 10-0."

Understandably annoyed, O'Grady met Don Revie to discuss his future
but could not get the assurances he sought; it was announced on 2 September
that he had asked to be made available for transfer. Revie said: "I'm
very disappointed that I couldn't persuade Mike to change his mind.
He told me he is very concerned at not getting a regular first team
place so I've reluctantly decided that we shall be prepared to talk
about a move if the right offer comes along. We shall circulate League
clubs to this effect. I am sorry to lose Mike, but he and I could not
agree on his insistence on a regular first team place with us ... He
has given us excellent service and we shall be sorry to see him go."

After more than 100 games for United, O'Grady was a little equivocal
about moving on, but had grown increasingly disenchanted with Revie's
management style and cautious outlook. He later recalled the
manager's timid approach at the time of the Fairs Cup final second leg
against Dinamo Zagreb in 1967: "Revie was really defensive although
we had been beaten away. For one thing, he had Paul Reaney on the right
wing but also he filled our heads with the opposition. I was a winger
yet he was warning me about the other winger ... expecting me to operate
defensively as well as up front. You'd be sitting there thinking: 'God,
just let us play!' It was hard work ... There were times when he might
have gone on too long about the opposition, which got you thinking more
about the opposition than actually playing the game. You're okay, but
you were worried about them. He was a bit ultra-cautious, let's say."

United's supporters were outraged when the news broke and the Yorkshire
Evening Post were snowed under with fans' letters of protest: "United's
inability to find a place for O'Grady and the decision to place him
on the transfer list make probably the first bit of bad business at
Elland Road in the last six years. It really must mean the end of United
as a soccer power. Every team is out to hold the champions, and fast
orthodox wingers are the only answer to blanket defence. There will
not be such a player at Elland Road if O'Grady goes ... O'Grady's absence
from the team is one of the main reasons why it has not been scoring
the vital goals ... Don Revie's Madeley complex can ruin all the great
work done by the team. Madeley is a great player, and can be sure of
the centre-half berth when Jack Charlton retires, but let the forward
positions be filled by forwards. Greenhoff gone, Lorimer nearly and
now O'Grady."

Wolves, managed by O'Grady's former Huddersfield team mate Bill McGarry,
agreed a fee of £80,000 with Don Revie a couple of weeks later. The
Molineux club were in need of a replacement for Under-23 star Peter
Knowles, who had recently announced his shock decision to become a Jehovah's
Witness. The Wolves bid was stymied with O'Grady initially unable to
agree personal terms.

O'Grady retained his place for the weekend's 2-0 victory against Chelsea,
but remained on the transfer list. On 23 September, it was announced
that he had managed to agree terms with Bill McGarry and was on his
way to Molineux after all. McGarry: "I know he is a good player and
I feel his experience will do the rest of the team good."

O'Grady explained his apparent change of heart: "I said no earlier
to the chance of joining Wolves because it was suddenly sprung on me.
I wanted more time to think it over and in the long term I think that
a move to Wolverhampton is the best thing.

"In October - when everything happens to me - Don called me into
his office and said 'Wolves are in for you'. Giles and Bremner wanted
me to stay, but I decided to go. I soon regretted it. I'd left the best
team in the country. Two weeks later I remember thinking: 'Oh, Michael,
what a mistake you've made'.

"Revie always told us other teams were frightened of us. I doubted
it, but the Wolves lads were forever asking about Leeds. In the end,
(manager) Bill McGarry had to tell me to belt up."

O'Grady was bemused by elements of Revie's behaviour leading up to
the transfer: "I'd had my best year, clear of injury though I started
off the pre-season in 1969 with a carbuncle underneath my foot. I thought
I wouldn't get back in the team... but to my surprise I did, though
I didn't play very well. We had a chat and Don said he didn't think
I was fit enough. So I played in the reserves. I thought, 'He wants
me to go.' Then he told me Wolves wanted to buy me. I said I didn't
want to go. But he came up again and said that Bill McGarry wanted to
see me. So I travelled down to Wolves and signed. It was the biggest
mistake of my life. I wasn't happy and I didn't like the set up."

He spoke later of the awe with which his new team mates regarded his
old side: "They said they were frightened of Leeds. They thought we
were hard, that they would always get put under pressure. They were
always asking me about Leeds. Then when I had been there a few weeks,
Bill McGarry got sick of it. He told me to stop talking about them."

The suspicion that he had been too hasty intensified whenever O'Grady
met Bill Bremner socially after the move. "Billy would say: 'You'd love
it now. He (Revie) has let us off the leash'. I used to grit my teeth."

That said, O'Grady always had the sense that, as the Leeds boy who
had come from another club, he was something of an outsider. "Most of
the lads had been there from the age of 15, and you get a different
feel for the club if you do that. Football-wise, I grew up at Huddersfield,
which is why I still have great affection for them.

"It's probably just in my head - and I count some of the lads as great
friends - but I never felt I was part of Revie's family."

Wolves were doing surprisingly well at the time and sat level on points
with Leeds United and Stoke City in the top six. They hung on gamely
to that placing for much of the campaign, though eventually fading away
to finish 13th with O'Grady beset by more injury problems.

O'Grady: "I hurt my knee ligaments in December after only a couple
of months at Wolves. Ironically, it was in a friendly at Dunfermline
that Bill McGarry had tried to get out of playing. We were three
or four up with a few minutes to go when a defender really caught me.
Then I hurt my Achilles tendon in the gym while I was on the way back
from that lay off.

"I played a few more games that winter, although I often struggled
to get through 90 minutes, and I broke down again in the following pre-season.
I went off for an operation and they found out I'd torn my tendon in
two places. For a time, there was a worry that I wouldn't play again.
With trying to carry the injury, I had put my ankle out of line, so
that had become a problem as well, then Mike Doyle kicked me in the
face and I had stitches which became infected. I just didn't seem to
have any luck at Molineux."

He did endear himself to the Wolves faithful, though, by netting a
spectacular winning goal in the closing minutes of the home clash with
the hated West Bromwich Albion on 1 November 1969. He also scored in
the return, a 3-3 draw at the Hawthorns on 28 February. Despite his
injury problems O'Grady scored 4 goals in 22 appearances that season.

In 1970/71 he played just 11 times, but his only League goal of the
campaign was enough to secure a home win against Liverpool at the end
of February as Wolves finished fourth.

In his three years at Molineux, O'Grady managed just 32 games but remembers
his time there with some fondness, saying, "We had a good run in the
UEFA Cup and won the Texaco Cup when I was there, and when I left they
won the League Cup." He struggled most of the time to displace Dave
Wagstaffe, who was in the best form of his career and was virtually
an ever present during O'Grady's years at Molineux.

O'Grady was loaned out to Birmingham in February 1972, with City on
the way to the FA Cup semi finals
and promotion from the Second Division. While on loan at St Andrews,
O'Grady was implicated in controversy when Wolves hosted Leeds in May
1972. It was two days after United won the FA Cup by beating Arsenal
and they needed just a draw to claim the championship and the Double.

The Mirror later claimed that Don Revie tried to fix the game. Andrew
Mourant: "It was alleged that Mike O'Grady had been approached by Revie
as an intermediary to see if the Wolves players might be bribed so that
the game would go in Leeds' favour. The Mirror article, quite explicitly,
had O'Grady claiming that Revie made the offer, and O'Grady made the
approach on his behalf."

O'Grady strenuously denies those allegations to this day. He insists
that he was never chased by the Mirror for an interview or in fact spoke
to them on any occasion about the matter.

This isn't the first or last time that Fleet Street has been less than
straightforward with its stories and O'Grady was clearly very upset
by the speculation. He is a supporter of functions to raise money for
Leeds causes, such as the erection in 2012 of the Don Revie statue at
Elland Road and was mortified by a story that had got out of hand and
damaged his reputation.

Whatever the motivation, O'Grady's Wolves team mates were certainly
fired up for the game, winning 2-1 to deny United the double and end
the season in 9th position themselves, going on to lose to Tottenham
in the final of the UEFA Cup later that month.

O'Grady quit Molineux in November 1972 for a new start at Third Division
Rotherham in a £9,000 deal. He rarely found his best form with
the Millers and his only goal in 1972/73 came in the last but one game
of the season, which
saw them defeated at home by Oldham and relegated. He had managed just
15 games.

In February 1974, Rotherham sacked O'Grady for an alleged breach of
contract. He was the second player fired by manager Jimmy McGuigan within
a month, joining Eddie Ferguson, who was dismissed for a breach of club
disipline. O'Grady had made 28 first team appearances for the Millers.

It was sad to see a player who had reached the heights of the game
seeing out his final year in such mundane surroundings as Workington,
Darlington, Mansfield and Hartlepool. In all he managed a career total
of 45 goals in 311 League games.

For the next 18 years he worked in the documentary film department
at Yorkshire Television. "I got the job through someone I knew; it had
nothing to do with what I knew," he laughed. When a wave of redundancies
came along at YTV, Mike did a bit of freelancing before landing a job
at the Royal Oak pub in Aberford in 1995.

He regularly appeared for United's ex-players XI in charity matches,
though he never had any interest in getting involved with coaching,
saying, "I leave that to the experts and just go along to watch".

There were many unhappy times and bitter disappointments in Mike O'Grady's
career, but at his peak he was one of the best wingers in England. His
contribution to Leeds' cause in 1968/69 was outstanding. He will long
be remembered for his dazzling runs down their right flank as they proved
themselves the outstanding side in the country. His goals and assists
earned many vital points for United at a time when they often struggled
to convert their dominance of games into scores on the doors.